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It's almost midnight in Sam and Deena's apartment. Sam's at the sink, doing the dishes, while Deena folds the blanket they'd been using on the couch while watching a movie earlier that night. It was Sam's turn to pick what they'd be watching that night, so she picked Back to the Future, which had been her favourite movie since she saw it for the first time in theatres when she was eight years old. Deena was hesitant to watch it at first, having thought it would be a nerdish movie, but Sam knew she ended up enjoying it (even if Deena wouldn't admit it to her face.)
It's been almost eight months since they broke the 300-year-old curse that had been cast upon Shadyside by none other than the Goodes. After Will was driven out of Sunnyvale and a new mayor was elected, Sam and Deena took the time to mourn over Kate and Simon since they'd never had the time to do so properly. They held a private funeral, which consisted of the two of them, Josh, Martin, and Ziggy, since they were the only ones who knew what truly happened to the two teens.
Then, after a lot of arguments, apologies from Deena, and reassurance from Sam, she convinced her mother to let them move back to Shadyside, in the same dusty old apartment they'd lived in before. Thankfully nobody had bought it, it was in horrible condition so no one thought it suitable for them to live in, but for Sam and her mother, it was home.
Sam began going back to Shadyside High with Deena and Josh, who she stayed with almost every night now that their father was around more often. He'd been taking up cooking lessons and been trying to compromise with his boss about getting more days off to look after his kids. Sam's mother wasn't necessarily fond of her relationship with Deena so she always turned down invitations for dinner or to catch up with her father.
Despite that, the two girls were thriving. They applied to the same college and got in, graduated, and as a gift, Deena's father had rented them an apartment not far from home but close to their college. They moved in during the summer, had a tearful goodbye with Josh and their father, and had been there ever since. Martin and Ziggy would come over sometimes for drinks or just to be with people who understood what they'd gone through.
Josh, too, would sometimes show up in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat and tears because of another nightmare.
Suddenly, Sam drops a plate on the floor, breaking it into sharp pieces. "Fuck."
Deena's head pops up from the other side of the couch. "What happened?"
"I just dropped a plate," Sam swallows, reaching in the cupboard to get a broom, sweeping the pieces towards the trash can. "It broke."
Deena stands up and walks over to Sam. She takes the broom out of her hands and sets it aside, cupping her face. "Are you okay? You look pale."
A shiver goes down Sam's spine. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. It probably just shocked me."
She something in the distance - a whisper, it sounds like it's coming from the back of her head, but she can't quite make out what it's saying. Deena's lips are moving but Sam isn't paying attention to her, only to the piercing whisper in her head. Then she finally hears it clearly.
Sam.
Sam freezes. It couldn't be. They ended the curse.
"Does that sound good?" Deena asks, interrupting Sam's train of thought.
Sam snaps back to reality. She can't say anything to Deena, she doesn't want to worry her, besides, she's fought this off before. Who's to say she can't do it again? "Yeah," she fakes a smile. "Great."
"Okay," Deena kisses her forehead. "I'll see you in bed."
Sam hears the voice again. It's louder this time, pierces her head harder, so hard she might even collapse, but she stands steadily as she grips the broom. She looks down at the pieces of the plate and notices the voice gets softer, she can at least hear herself think now.
Pick it up.
She does.
Finish what you started eight months ago.
Sam stops. She can't do this, she can't just-
Do it.
This time she falls to her knees. Deena's in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, so she doesn't notice. Sam can't take this anymore. She needs the voice to stop, and there's only one way to make that happen.
Her head now full of the loud whispers overlapping each other, playing over and over, Sam walks over to the bathroom, a sharp piece of the plate in hand, and creeps up behind Deena.
Deena looks at her through the mirror. "Sam? What are you-" Sam pushes the piece into Deena's abdomen. Hard. She feels no remorse for doing so, the only thing she cares about right now is getting the piercing voice out of her head. She can't even hear herself think. Deena falls to the ground. Sam walks out of the bathroom, away from her girlfriend's limp body.
The whispers don't stop. They're getting louder.
Sam.
"What.." Sam mutters.
Sam.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Sam yells. She falls to the ground, hands on her head, as she screams, but she can't even hear herself over the voice.
Sam.
Sam.
"SAM!"
Sam's eyes shoot open. Deena's towering over her, a worried look on her face. "Sam- you were groaning and panting and then I felt you and you were all hot and sweaty, what happened?"
Sam sits up, head in her hands as she softly cries into them. She hasn't had a nightmare like that before. She knows it happens to the others, there were a few nights where she had to comfort Deena, but she never thought it would happen to her.
Deena places her hand on Sam's shoulder, unsure of what to do. "Sam, what's wrong? What happened?"
Finally, Sam takes a deep breath and sits up straight. She looks at Deena, not in the eyes, she can't after what happened in her nightmare. "I had a nightmare that..." she trails off, taking another breath. "I had a nightmare that the curse- I don't know, got to me again. It was like the devil was whispering in my ear, I couldn't even hear myself think, and then I-"
Deena tightens her grip on Sam's shoulder. "You what?"
"I killed you," she says softly. Deena twitches, but her expression doesn't change, it's still the same worried expression she had before. The same one she had when Peter crashed their car eight months ago. Sam can't bear looking at Deena after that, so she digs her head in her hands again. "I'm sorry. I should have just kept that to myself, it's so stupid, I'm so stupid, I just can't help but think that maybe we fucked something up, maybe it's after me again, and-"
"Hey," Deena says. "Look at me," she cups Sam's face, wiping her tears. "We broke that curse eight months ago, okay? You, me, Josh, Martin, and Ziggy- we defeated it, we killed Nick Goode. It can't hurt you anymore. And even if it could, you know I would do anything to get you back. You can break my bones, stab me, I don't care, because I'm never going to let you go, you got it?"
Sam nods. "I got it."
"Good," Deena kisses her forehead. "You wanna go back to sleep?"
"No," Sam says. "I don't think I'd be able to fall back asleep either way."
Deena smiles. "You hungry?"
"Why?" Sam asks.
About half an hour later, Deena returns to the apartment with cheeseburgers and her radio from home. Sam is on the couch underneath the blankets, watching a re-run of some game show on their tiny TV. She sees Deena with the cheeseburgers and rolls her eyes. "I can't believe there was a place actually open."
"The place near us is 24 hours," Deena says. "Sorry I took so long, I stopped by the house to get this," she lifts the radio up. "Were you okay on your own?" she asks, walking to the kitchen, setting the radio on the counter, and then pulling out plates for her and Sam.
"I was fine," Sam says. "Thanks for doing this, by the way."
"Of course," Deena walked over to the couch, handing Sam her plate with her cheeseburger and fries. She went back to get her plate and the radio, joining Sam on the couch. She placed the radio on their coffee table in front of them, taking a cassette tape out of her pocket and placing it inside.
"Hey," by the Pixies starts to play. Deena grins cheekily, looking at Sam for her reaction.
"Cheeseburgers and the Pixies," Sam nods. She sets her plate on the table. "I love you."
"I love you too," Deena sets her plate on the table too and inches closer to Sam, pulling her into a kiss.